Kenny Keller warns that people on the ground can fatally walk into a spinning tail rotor without realizing it. He describes an experienced mechanic who nearly did, and advises pilots to position landings carefully and watch for approaching people during shutdown, even if it means parking into the wind.
You have to make sure that ground personnel or onlookers don't walk into the tail rotor again. You land somewhere, all kinds of things can happen. I had a mechanic in Cleveland when I was working there, very experienced mechanic, been around him for years. And he was telling me one day how he was out doing some tracking, and he was near the rear of the aircraft, and he leaned down and he got a tool and he picked up and he turned around and he stopped, tail rotor spinning right in front of his face. And he was trained and he knew better. And he still almost walked into a tail rotor. I know pilots, I know fellow helicopter pilots that have had people killed walking into a tail rotor. I've heard horror stories about other people walking into tail rotors. You just can't be too careful. You know, it's totality, the circumstance when you're going to land somewhere. Is there a group of people over there? Can you go park over there? Although we always want to park and land into the wind. Maybe this is an occasion where you want the wind off your tail so that you can sit and watch who might be approaching the aircraft while you're shutting down. It's just something that you really, really have to think about because it does happen.
